Same Suspect Broke Into 12 Queens Businesses, Police Say
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The NYPD is looking for a man behind a dozen unusual break-ins since the start of the New Year.
Detectives say he's gone through vents -- even the walls during his heists. They say they know his name, but catching him hasn't been easy.
At the Exclusive Barber Shop on Utopia Parkway in Fresh Meadows, Ifrain Khafizov showed CBS2's Lou Young the patched hole in the wall where the night burglar came through.
Cops say the suspect is Kenneth Connolly -- a skinny 50-year-old who has allegedly broken into twelve different businesses over six nights in January; restaurants, cleaners, and a pharmacy. The one man crime wave took place inside of a few blocks.
"These are mom and pop businesses. They're trying to survive in today's economy and it breaks my heart that they have to put up with this," one neighbor said.
The wanted posters are everywhere, as are the burglar's handiwork. He pushed an air conditioner in one night to get into a 99-cent store. On another night he crawled through a hole where an air conditioner used to be to get into a vacant dentist's office.
The suspect is energetic, but not particularly successful.
"He broke in bars, he knock the window inside and the whole wall go in with a crowbar," Paul Brellas said.
The whole thing took three hours.
At Sam's Pizza on 47th Ave he got all of $16.50 worth of loose and rolled change.
He scored less at the barber shop, and even less at B and J cleaners a few doors down.
"Five dollars," John Baik said.
His biggest score was at Moon Star Chinese on 46th.
"Like $300, because we got coins, but other than that he didn't do anything else," Liz Dang said.
Given the amount of effort, some victims suggest he might try a different approach.
"He should have come inside, I would have given him $20," Brellas said.
Too late for that.
Cops say he's familiar with the area, but has no fixed address and may be staying at local hotels.
The break-ins started on January 15, the most recent was last Wednesday.
Anyone with any information is asked to call NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA for Spanish. You can also submit a tip via their website or text a tip to 274637 (CRIMES) and then entering TIP577.
